Here are the words they used for health care reform (or the buzzwords their consultants told them to use): “Secret”! “Backroom”! “Behind closed doors”! “Dealing”! Or, as one especially unsubtle pol put it, “secret backroom dealing”!
These right-wing politicians and activists had a zeal for open government when they demanded that the House and Senate reconcile their health-care reform bills in public. Let’s hope they show the same dedication to transparency now that financial reform’s on the table. The House and Senate negotiations should be broadcast on live television, and conservatives should join the call to demand it.
Maybe we’ll even get Glenn Beck to join us. (Hey, it could happen.)
This is a critical time: Bank are spending big bucks to influence the outcome of the House/Senate conference. As the head of the American Bankers Association put it, “We are going to have to try and clean up as much of this as we can” during the conference process. And if there’s one thing banks know how to do, it’s “clean up” – at your expense.
